


Flowers for the Birthday Girl

by TinyBat



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-03
Updated: 2012-10-03
Packaged: 2017-11-15 13:05:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/527633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyBat/pseuds/TinyBat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post "Our Town": Stefan ceases being a ripper jerk and visits his best friend on her birthday. He needs someone to know he’s still himself and she just needs someone to be there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flowers for the Birthday Girl

**Author's Note:**

> for the sake of flow let's pretend Stefan has done the smart thing and let himself fall for Caroline.

It was 3:00 in the morning when a knock rattled the bedroom window of the now 18 year old Caroline Forbes. She felt sick, exhausted and thoroughly overwhelmed by the events of her evening so when a second knock came she ignored it. A sliding noise and a click announced the opening of the window and a soft thud told her that someone had just landed on her carpet. Now very awake and irritated she slammed the intruder against the wall and hissed sharply at them.

An unruffled and slightly amused Stefan Salvatore looked back at her with a small smirk on his face.

“I knocked but nobody answered so I came in anyway. You look surprised to see me.” said the older vampire, pushing her away from him and detaching himself from the wall. He winced and grabbed at his right shoulder, jerked sharply and rolled it experimentally. Caroline had dislocated it with the force of her charge but given Stefan’s recent attitude change she didn’t regret it.

“It’s 3 in the morning, i’m tired, I nearly died, and I appear to have a new stalker. So what the hell do you want Stefan?” said a still angry Caroline who had retreated to her bed with a suitably deadly glare.

He slowly approached her and sat down by her side with a strange expression. 

“It was your birthday. I know i’m late and that you probably think i’m the second worst person in the northern hemisphere right now but I wanted to be here. Hate me all you want but you’re still my best friend and it’s my job.” Stefan muttered looking shame-faced and and depressed now. He had guilt dripping off of him like mud and deservedly so, it was taking all of her patience to not call Damon to help dispatch him.

Caroline had every reason in the world to try breaking his neck but she was still so tired and here he was; her recently returned best friend sitting on the edge of her bed looking like a soaked puppy. He had been her savior and teacher; she had continued keeping that in mind after he left. Hoping always that if Damon found him and brought him back that she would be able to step between the two of them and save him like he had for her. 

“You left us Stefan. You left Elena and you left Damon and you left me. Me,Stefan. If i’m your best friend why didn’t I get a goodbye? Would a phone call have killed you?” she croaked, it was hard work holding back her exhaustion and now he had made her want to cry. He deserved to be thrown out her window head first and here she was fighting off tears. She had missed him so much and had been so frightened for him; he was here and he had the nerve to look at her and try being the old Stefan again. It was making her sick.

” Care, I wanted to stay, I really did. Klaus didn’t give me a choice. Damon would have died and it would have been on me. He’s my family and I had to save him. If it hadn’t been down to saving my brother I would have stayed with you and with everyone else but I had to leave. I should have said goodbye, you’re right but there was no way Klaus wouldn’t have found out.” Stefan was breaking now, she could see it. He was just as big a mess as she was and while she was still upset it was a sign that her Stefan still existed. 

All patience she had exhibited was gone now and his regret was really hurting her. Being Caroline she acted on impulse and punched him hard in the jaw. A sickening crunch and a spurt of blood from his mouth told her that she made herself clear. She began to cry, she was done trying to keep herself together and it was a relief. Stefan looked genuinely shocked for a moment but composed himself and nodded.

“That I know I deserved, that and more too.” he said in a quavery voice, wiping his mouth on his sleeve and looking all the more upset for her now clearly visible distress. He draped an arm around her shoulder and squeezed very gently, bracing himself against whatever else she decided he deserved. She looked up at him with red rimmed and puffy eyes and hit him again but in the chest with her shoulders shaking. She kept going and he took it. She didn’t shake him off and he stayed exactly where he was, letting her get it all out. When it looked like she couldn’t even sit upright he took her hands gently in his and pulled her to his chest.

He was still Stefan and she was still Caroline. They were hurting and tired and done with trying to keep it together for everyone else. He was a monster and she was now the only piece of sunlight in the gathered darkness. He had to atone for his sins but it couldn’t be right now; now he had a part to play and it would be bearable as long as one person knew at least part of his humanity was still intact. 

“Caroline, i’m still me. I know i’ve done unforgivable things but i’m still here. I’ll be here whenever you need me but it has to stay quiet. I have something big planned and i’ll need to be convincing. I know you’re still angry and you’ll stay that way otherwise you wouldn’t be yourself. But I need someone to know that i’m working towards being what I was. Please say you’ll keep it a secret.” he murmured softly into her hair. His best friend, his Caroline was right here and after tonight’s latest atrocity he needed her to know that he would be okay.

She pulled away from him and looked at him for a moment before nodding. 

“I really should just keep hitting you because you have a lot more of that coming anyway. You’re here now and frankly I needed someone, I just didn’t know it would be you. I’ll keep quiet Stefan but you have to promise me that you’ll do your best to keep yourself in check. I’m only doing this because I still trust the old Stefan and he’s obviously still around because I wouldn’t have let the new Stefan touch me with a 10 foot pole.” she gave a weak smile and curled up with her chin resting on her knees. 

“Like I said before tears and violence became a thing, I missed your birthday. I am a complete ass for it too” he said with a smile and pulled a small and now crumpled bundle of 18 oak geraniums of of his jacket pocket. They were delicate and a lovely shade of light purple. Being a well rounded gentleman when he was human he knew what they meant. The two other bundles he left of the window sill for her to find later were for her to figure out.

“They’re oak geraniums. They’re for friendship. I admit to knowing a bit about flowers. It was something I picked up in the late 1870’s. I also happen to know a very good florist. Happy birthday Care. Good night” he kissed her on the forehead, smiled, and made his way back out the window.

Caroline now well and truly past exhausted fell asleep where she sat, clutching the flowers in her hand. It wasn’t until she woke up that she found two little bouquets tied with string on her windowsill and a blue box on her end table. The bracelet gave her pause but the flowers would have stopped her heart if it had still been able to beat. White clover and honey flowers. She knew what white clover meant because she had a book about flower language when she was a girl. Stefan wanted her to remember that he was still there and there for her. After a quick bout of research she found that the others were honey flowers. The meaning nearly toppled her over. The honey flowers she would have never expected and the more she thought about things with Stefan and their relationship the more trouble she realized she was in. 

“Yeah, should have kept hitting him…damn.” she swore under her breath, flopped over backwards and slammed a pillow over her face to scream.


End file.
